For nearly a century, Waldo Grain Co. has operated in this red barn-like structure on Wornall Road.
But its roots stretch further. According to the owner’s family lore it started nearby in 1916 as a rural feed store at the city limits, selling chicken feed, hay for workhorses and other farm supplies.
Now, after being in the same family for most of its 109 years, it has new owners, George and Traci Ismert. They will have more to share later but hope to eventually only stock Kansas City area products.
Jon Goodwin, great-grandson of the founder, is happy just to get “water and heat.”
A 50-year-old furnace that heated the office failed a few weeks ago, but the Ismerts recently put in new heating for the room just off the front entrance.
The building (7801 Wornall Rd,. KCMO), has never had a bathroom. It trades off with neighbor Bledsoe’s Rental – Waldo Grain employees could use Bledsoe’s bathroom, and Bledsoe’s could store some equipment at Waldo Grain. The new owners plan to put in a restroom, Goodwin said. The building also is getting new energy-efficient windows.
The Goodwin family had offers to sell over the years. But Goodwin, 69, was just coming in one day a week, a schedule he could have kept to for years to come. But then staffing issues over the summer had him coming in six days a week.
When the Ismerts approached him, he was ready. He will stay on part-time for now.
“As long-time customers of Waldo Grain, we are thrilled about the opportunity to keep this Waldo gem going,” the Ismerts said in a statement. “This is Waldo’s store. …it’s just our turn to take care of it.”
The History Behind Waldo Grain
Family lore has Goodwin’s great-grandfather, LC. “Doc” Frey, opening the store in a nearby limestone building in 1916. (A 1919 ad puts it at 7510 Broadway.) A blacksmith shop was a neighbor.
“It was an early park-and-ride. Leaving their horses and catching the trolley downtown,” Goodwin said. Once a customer told him she would come on horse and buggy from around what is now 160th Street and Metcalf Avenue, saying Waldo Grain was the nearest place to get dog food at that time.
Doc Frey wasn’t a trained veterinarian but knew so much about animal care he earned the designation.
His son, Harry, worked at Waldo Grain until he entered the service in World War I. Then Frey sold the business to a Waldo banker. After the war, Harry came back on as an employee before eventually buying it back. He was said to have met his future wife while she was shopping in the store. (One longtime customer also told Goodwin he met his future wife while in line buying dog food.)
In the late 1960s, Harry passed ownership to his daughter, Dorothy Frey Goodwin. A longtime employee continued to manage it.
When Dorothy passed away in 2014, her two sons inherited the shop. Jon had started working there part-time in 1985 and full-time in 1990. His brother, Kurt, started in 1987 and then Jon bought Kurt out in late 2021 when he wanted to retire.
Goodwin says Waldo Grain’s phone number – 816-363-1111 – is probably indicative that it was the first, or one of the first, phones in the area. He has old newspaper clippings on the store and a vintage photo of a two-lane Wornall that appears to be a dirt road.
Now he looks out on the bustling four lanes, remembering Asian, Italian and German restaurants that operated within walking distance.
“Bono’s Italian restaurant. I was a kid but we went there with the grandparents,” he said.
Bird feeders and birdhouses hang just overhead in the front retail space. Shelves in back are stacked with its top-sellers – bags of dog and cat food, as much as 50-pound bags.
Wild bird seed was once just a seasonal item. Now it is popular year-round. Customers flock to the store in spring for grass seed, and packets of flower and garden seeds.
“And straw year-round. There is always something someone wants to use it on,” he said.
Three antique scales can be found here and there amongst the inventory. Inventory that also includes chicken feed, coming full circle from selling to rural farms to urban farmers, Goodwin said.
Over the years Waldo Grain has sold items hard to find locally. Like Udder Balm, “People use it for their hands. But there are 101 uses I’ve heard,” Goodwin said.
Still, competing with the big box stores gets harder every year. Waldo Grain has survived by having a loyal base in surrounding neighborhoods, four generations of families who came even though the store lacked heat or air conditioning.
He looks down at the original wood floors – so worn that some knots are no longer flush to the surface. He always wanted to polish them.
“We have some of the richest people in Kansas City and some of the poorest. But they are all talking birds and cats and dogs,” he said. “It’s the uniqueness of the store and they get very personal customer service. They can park right in front with their kids or pets and we bring it out to them.”
Along with fourth generation customers, Goodwin likes that Waldo businesses are mostly still small businesses even while the faces and store names have changed.
But all along he had one goal. He wanted the family business to make it to its centennial. Now it is nearly a decade beyond.
“I wanted to do that for my grandfather,” he said. “My parents divorced when I was one year old and I’m sure my grandfather helped my mother out more than I ever had known. It has certainly kind of kept our family going.”
For more KC history, read about 40 Moments That Shaped Kansas City here.
